How to Philosophize with Cake: Vegan cherry berry peanut butter crisp with peanut butter sauce

What to do when one has two pints of fresh cherries on hand and they’re dangerously close to their expiration dates? Put them in crisp, obviously!

Yes. That bowl of unidentifiable berry- and peanut butter-colored deliciousness is "crisp".

I’m not usually the type to make such rustic, uncouth desserts as buckles and slumps and crumbles and, well, crisps, but I couldn’t resist after poking around in Vegan Desserts and happening upon this very convenient recipe for peanut butter and jelly-inspired crisp. A gooey, sticky sweet berry filling supported by peanut butter-infused crust just had to be good. Of course, after whipping up the actual crisp and sticking it in the oven, I found myself making a peanut butter sauce for topping.

As if this weren't gorgeous enough.

Clearly, this isn’t the most elegant thing I’ve made. I usually prefer pretty frosted layer cakes and clean-cut tarts and little round cookies. Crisp, by its very nature, is messy. It’s scooped out into bowls and topped with already-melting scoops of ice cream or maybe a dollop of whipped cream or perhaps even peanut butter sauce (hmmm, about that...). And yet it’s just perfect.

As an easy, uncomplicated, scrumptious way to use up those fresh berries, this recipe is wonderful. My family gobbled that little casserole dish of gooey berry wonderfulness right up. I did too, but that’s a given.

Of course, it gets easier after you pit all those goddamn cherries. My fingers are still stained, I swear.

And the peanut butter sauce? Optional, but I highly recommend it. Gives a little more heartiness to the relative lightness of the berry filling.

Here’s the recipe.

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Vegan cherry berry peanut butter crisp with peanut butter sauce

Adapted from Vegan Desserts by Hannah Kaminsky

Serves 4 to 6

Ingredients

Cherry berry filling

415 grams • cherries, pitted • 3 cups

296 grams • blueberries • 2 cups

68 grams • granulated sugar • 1/3 cup

10 grams • cornstarch • 1 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon

Peanut butter crisp

102 grams • all-purpose flour • ¾ cup

12 grams • granulated sugar • 1 tablespoon

1 gram • baking powder • ¼ teaspoon

Pinch salt

32 grams • peanut butter • 2 tablespoons

14 grams • coconut oil • 1 tablespoon

30 to 60 grams • cold water • 2 to 4 tablespoons

Peanut butter sauce

128 grams • peanut butter • ½ cup

90 grams • coconut milk, full-fat • ¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons

36 grams • granulated sugar • 3 tablespoons

44 grams • corn syrup • 2 tablespoons

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Grease an 8-inch round baking dish (one with high sides, like a casserole dish) and set aside.

Combine cherries, blueberries, sugar, and cornstarch in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Cook for about 5 minutes, until the sugar dissolves and the berries are beginning to release their juices. Remove from heat and spoon filling into prepared baking dish.

Place flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a food processor and pulse to combine. Add peanut butter and coconut oil; pulse a few times to combine, similar to a pie crust. Be sure not to over-mix. Add water a spoonful at a time and pulse with each addition to combine, until the dough begins to come together.

Turn dough out onto a floured surface and roll out to about a centimeter thick. Layer dough on top of berry mixture in baking dish.

Bake for about 25 to 30 minutes, until the topping is golden and the fruit is bubbling up around the edges. In the meantime, make the peanut butter sauce.

To make the peanut butter sauce, simply combine all ingredients in a small saucepan over medium heat and cook, whisking consistently, until the sugar dissolves and the peanut butter is melted. Remove from heat. Be sure not to overcook sauce, or it will be too thick.

Let the crisp cool for at least 10 minutes before serving with peanut butter sauce in bowls. Munch.

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